See a timeline of the Fayette voting rights case at myAJC.com.
A nearly five-year-old legal fight that has caused political and racial rifts in Fayette County may be coming to an end.
The county school board voted unanimously Tuesday night to settle its part in a legal dispute with the NAACP and a group of black residents over how county government leaders are elected. The school board agreed to settle and adopt a new district map that calls for four voting districts and one at-large district, an obvious compromise toward the county's ongoing push to bring back at-large voting. The county currently has five election districts.
"This compromise settlement is in the best interest of the school system and the public," the school board said in a prepared statement. "It allows for the continuation of some at-large seats, and eliminates the school district's potential exposure to payment of over $1 million of attorney's fees to the plaintiffs' lawyers if the case were litigated further, which would have led to more appeals."
The county commission, which meets Thursday at 7 p.m., must now decide if it will follow suit — a move that could bring to an end the ongoing fight that was ordered into mediation last October.
While Tuesday’s decision was unanimous on paper, satisfaction with the decision among board members was mixed.
“Given the legal obstacles we were faced with, this was the best we could do,” school board member Barry Marchman said.”It’s not the outcome most of us wanted but I hope our community can move forward and begin the process of healing and work on issues that reunite us.”
School board member Leonard Presberg, an early proponent for settling the case, said Wednesday “I’m happy that the school board unanimously was able to come to a settlement that allows our county to move forward in the spirit of equality and inclusiveness.”
Four of the five county commissioners contacted declined to discuss the case, citing confidentiality agreements they were required to sign. Efforts to reach commissioner Steve Brown were unsuccessful.
While government and NAACP officials remain mum, residents’ sentiments vary.
“I’m glad to see it’s coming to an end. It’s been a long time coming - four and a half years to get justice in Fayette County,” said attorney and county resident Wayne Kendall who filed the lawsuit. He is no longer part of the case.
Local activist Bob Ross called the school board’s decision “regressive” and said it doesn’t bode well for the county. Ross, co-founder of the Fayette County Issues Tea Party, criticized the way the mediation and ultimately the agreement was handled. He said Fayette residents should have had a chance to look at the remedies before any action was taken.
“It’s all been done behind closed doors,” said Ross who attended Tuesday night’s school board meeting where no public comment was allowed. “Here’s a major decision for this county. It’s been dragging on for four years and the thing is settled in secret. I don’t think that’s good government.
Ross said the new electoral set up will “negatively impact education, transportation, public safety, taxation, economic development and land planning and every other aspect of community life that elected board members make decisions on.
“Candidates will be focused on their district and not accountable to everyone in Fayette county,” said Ross who favors at-large voting.
Proponents of district voting say it gives minority candidates a better chance at getting elected because at-large voting dilutes the strength of minority voters.
“The reason the judge at the time reconfigured the original map was to give people who felt shut out of the electoral process a better chance to be involved,” said Tyrone resident Lurma Rackley who favors district voting. “I hope the commission doesn’t go the other way and keep on fighting district voting.”
In August. 2011, the NAACP and a group of black residents sued the county alleging its at-large voting system kept blacks from being elected to county-level posts. U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten ultimately agreed and ordered the county to adopt district voting. County officials appealed and an panel of three appeals court judges sent the case back to Batten for trial. Batten sent the case to mediation last October.
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